HP InkJet Supplies Strategy: How to Foul Users?

Unlike Epson and its addiction to bring all third parties Inkjet Suppliers to the court, HP announced its wish to change the way it delivers inkjet cartridges to customers; aiming to offer them more choice, greater value and a simplified shopping experience, both in-store and online. HP roles out a 3 color-coded packaging system across its entire inkjet cartridge portfolio: standard (blue), value (green) and specialty (red). It is supposed to help customers to buy cartridges corresponding to their needs.
- Standard cartridges (blue packaging): a lower price tag ($14.99) for customers who still want access to high-quality printing, but don’t want to
pay a lot at the point of purchase; supposing they do not print many documents (highest cost/page for standard printing)
* Value cartridges (green packaging): aiming to bring a financially interesting solution for customers with higher volume printing needs (lower cost/page compared to standard cartridges). This line will include a new high-yield cartridge entitled "XL", supposed to cut cost/page but an additional 30 to 45%. The "XL" logo will be added to the Value green packaging labeling.
* Specialty cartridges (red packaging): targeting Professional or more demanding printing jobs, such as photos. It will probably replace the current Photo-specific cartridge.
If HP thinks it will answer customer's needs with this new strategy, we think it will probably foul them around, making it almost impossible to identify the true cartridge corresponding to their needs. We think it is a way to bring price below the $14.99 price range while maintaining HP profit on printer consumable outrageous. By changing the volume of ink in cartridges, HP expects to attract customers back to its branded cartridges by playing the "price game", but at the end, customers will quickly identify the real cost of their printing jobs.